PBS Segment Examines Amish Factory Workers

A nationally televised documentary Tuesday (Feb. 28) featured a segment on what was described as the greatest cultural change in Amish life since their arrival in America — using footage filmed in Indiana’s LaGrange County.

“The Amish” aired nationally Tuesday as part of PBS’ documentary series “American Experience.” It featured segments on a variety of topics relating to Amish life and interaction with the outside world filmed in multiple communities.

A segment describing the movement of Amish men into factory, rather than farm, work, used footage and an off-camera interview with an unidentified Amish worker filmed at a recreational vehicle plant in Topeka. The documentary said more than half of Amish men in northern Indiana now work in factories.

The worker described the stresses of working in an environment other than the ones in which he had been raised, and the pace the work required.

Sociologist Donald Kraybill of Elizabethtown College, interviewed for the program, said the shift to factory worked marked the greatest cultural change for the Amish since they arrived in the United States in the 17th century.